I am definitely behind the curve. I don't claim to be the first to anything (though I discovered trap pretty early on by mistake). i came from a rock background, I've only been into electronic music for 5 years?

Dubstep has gone through a lot of changes, I started getting into it right before it blew up and then changed drastically. I remember going to shows and not knowing what it was except low rumble with creepy atmospheric sounds.

I was wondering where people first picked up on it, that's interesting to me.

The first time I remember hearing it and knowing what it was the artist was bass clef. I had been hearing dubstep style music since I moved to San Francisco and asked my friend what it was called and he said dubstep.

totally impossible to say. i was listening to a hundreds of artists on DubStep.FM and SubFM internet radio stations. Back in the day, around 2008 they were huge! Also listened to garagepressure on FBi radio Sydney internet radio. They used to play the best dubstep before brostep fell onto the scene and annoyed to heck everybody who wasnt turned on by it.

Either 16bit's remix of Shallow or Rusko's Pro Nails. I listened to brostep for a while because I thought it was some kind of natural progression even though I knew it sucked. Still listen to JVIZ earthquake weather on dubstep.fm, always some good music.

I was listening to a lot of Tipper, started to look into the people in his Fuel crew, the nu skool breaks stuff which isn't very far from dubstep. First dubstep I ever heard was probably "Bangin" by Si Begg.

Actually, it was probably Subvert's "Speaker Humpin'". And from there followed the path to excision and datsik and all those isolated bangers guys (downlink I remember too). Then broken note. Then didn't care so much
I had listened to Bassnectar's "underground communication" too and never really heard his dubstep stuff

Walking around Ultra Music Fest in 2006, I stumbled upon bassnectar with a few friends. My jaw just dropped. He was playing Creation Lullaby and I just thought it was amazing, and unlike nothing I had ever heard before. This was in his breakbeat period, when he was doing the amazingly experimental stuff and had just released Mesmerizing the Ultra and Diverse Systems of Throb.

I followed his work closely after seeing that performance.
So whenever the crossed the breakbeat line into dubstep is when I first heard dubstep.

I wasn't a big fan of dubstep but it slowly became a bit appealing after I was surrounded by it from my friends. I still love progressive house but dubstep is okay for me in the right environment=p oh and skrillex i suppose. sorry for the mainstream

Sukh Knight, and Chrispy. Don't remember when, long time ago though. I remember hearing Ganja and Diesel not Petrol before dubstep was even a "thing" on youtube. I was like "Woah, hoooo, wait a second. What's that sound?" and thus the love was born. Thank god too, if not for the insane difficulty of some dubstep mixes, my mixing would have stayed at pre-dub level and for me that was just shite.